What'cha gonna do if the ban goes through?

How would you like to receive a $27,800 tax bill from the State of Alaska for your family of four? After all, that happens to be your fair share of the state budget! Thank God for Prudhoe Bay, eh?

But does everyone believe that North Slope oil and gas tax revenues will last forever? They won't! So how are we going to finance state government after draining Prudhoe? How about a fair mining tax?

The debate surrounding Pebble sounds like some kind of childish Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" parody. The money-grubbing environmental lobbyists have cast Northern Dynasty in the role as the alien dreadnought, hovering into position so that it can lay waste to the Great Land with its death ray. And the soundtrack to this horror movie is "Don't Worry, Be Happy!" as whistled by the Mining Industry Glee Club.

Pebble will eventually be developed -- our government won't let a taxable resource like that go to waste. So let's quit wasting everyone's time with all of the chest-beating histrionics and the counter-productive mining ban initiatives. Instead, let's focus on the real issue; how can we develop these large mineral deposits safely? And how can these kinds of projects help fund state government in a post-Prudhoe world?